Pragmatism in the pandemic: The protection of commercial tenants in Singapore

• Main Author: TI, Edward
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Courts; Singapore; COVID-19; pandemic; public health; Asian Studies; Commercial Law; Public Health
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/3230; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/5178/viewcontent/Pragmatism_in_the_pandemic.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The COVID-19 epidemic has not spared any country, not least a densely populated country like Singapore. The government has been working tirelessly developing new policies and laws to mitigate the human and economic devastation brought on by the virus. The COVID-19 (Temporary Measures) Act 2020 (COTMA) is intended to tackle some of the negative effects brought about by COVID-19. With an initial application period of 6 months which can be amended at the Minister’s discretion, the COTMA covers a wide range of issues. Summarily, the COTMA provides for public health controls necessary to manage the health crisis, increases bankruptcy and insolvency thresholds to the advantage of debtors, allows company meetings and court hearings to be held virtually, relieves individuals from their obligations under certain types of contracts, provides rental relief to non-residential small-medium enterprises (SMEs), and requires property tax rebates granted to landlords to be passed on to non-residential tenants. Specific to protecting the interests of commercial tenants are two main thrusts – (a) temporary suspension of the landlord’s legal rights against tenants who do not pay rent and (b) direct rental relief provided by landlords.